New Jersey casino rolls out betting on TVs inside hotel rooms

One New Jersey casino, catering to gamblers of the couch-potato variety, will start letting guests place bets right from their hotel room televisions.

Starting Feb. 18, the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City said it will be the first gambling establishment in the U.S. to allow guests to bet from the comfort of their beds, a step that could eventually lead to gambling on smartphones and tablet computers within the casino, according to the Associated Press.

The E-Casino program will be equipped with slots and four kinds of poker games, with guests allowed to bet up to $2,500 per day. Customers use the TV remote control to play.

Tom Balance, the casino's president and chief operating officer, described the new system as the "future of gaming."

"This puts us in a position to leverage the technology into true mobile gaming and Internet betting later on," Balance told the AP. "This is that first step."

Casino officials said in-room TV gambling will also help visitors get accustomed to the idea of betting on hand-held devices, which the state recently approved, and also Internet gambling, which the state could approve in the future, the AP said.

In order to keep those under age or restricted from gambling from playing, customers must have a Borgata player's club card to play. The technology will be available in all of Borgata's hotel rooms.